Workforce
MSPB orders temporary reinstatement of nearly 6,000 probationary workers at USDA
These Agriculture Department employees must be allowed back to their jobs for 45 days, as the Office of Special Counsel continues to investigate the Trump administration’s purge of recently hired, promoted or transferred federal employees.
Updated
Workforce
Some agencies are still firing probationers while others have recalled theirs, following court ruling
There appears to be confusion throughout the Trump administration as to the impacts of the court's decision, with some agencies pausing their personnel actions to assess the fallout.
Workforce
House Dems: Immediately reinstate fired feds
A group of 85 lawmakers called on the Office of Special Counsel to broaden its recommendation earlier this week to stay the firing of six employees on probationary periods to all probationary workers purged in recent days.
Workforce
Judge orders Trump administration to rescind directives on probationary employee firings
The administration did not have the authority to issue the dismissals, federal court rules.
Workforce
OPM tells court it never ordered mass firings, contradicting prior claims
The Trump administration is arguing in court that agencies acted on their own to fire probationary staff, but it previously sent a government directive with a deadline for the firings.
Pay & Benefits
23,000 federal prison workers are set to take pay cuts up to 25% next month
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons said the decision to severely curtail retention incentive payments across the federal carceral system stems from fixed cost increases associated with operating under a continuing resolution.
Workforce
Board agrees to pause firings for some feds, potentially upending Trump's widespread terminations
The employees must be reinstated to their roles pending further investigation, appeals board rules.
Management
Trump to convert some top career roles to political appointments and evaluate execs on adherence to president’s agenda
New policy ensures top roles can only be filled by the "administration's political cronies," senior executive group says.
Transition
Killing the Presidential Management Fellows program threatens the future of federal labor
COMMENTARY | A former fellow urges the Trump administration to reopen the door to this program that attracted talent and leaders to the federal workforce.
Exclusive
Workforce
Oversight agency finds Trump’s federal worker firings unlawful, asks for some employees to be reinstated
The findings could have sweeping impacts for the tens of thousands of recently dismissed workers.
Updated
Workforce
Trump administration asks all feds to justify their jobs or risk losing them
Employees throughout government are receiving emails asking them what they did last week.
Workforce
Judge, convinced of overseas employees’ safety, denies injunction against USAID
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols’ ruling Friday clears the way for the Trump administration to place the vast majority of USAID’s workforce on administrative leave as it prepares an effort to the shutter the agency.
Workforce
Judge denies federal unions’ request to block mass probationary firings
The federal judge said in a preliminary ruling that the National Treasury Employees Union likely must first bring their challenge to the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
Workforce
‘Salting the earth’: Trump ends presidential management fellowships and federal executive boards
The move to kill a key pipeline for aspiring civil servants and regional agency councils reflects a desire to make it impossible to rebuild the federal bureaucracy, experts said.
Workforce
Social Security offers 40 probationary feds reassignments to avert blanket firings
Around 40 Social Security Administration employees were given eight hours—or until 4:30 p.m. Thursday—to decide whether to accept reassignments to a field or hearing office, teleservice center or payment center and avoid being swept up in the Trump administration’s purge of the federal workforce.
Workforce
Trump’s plan to slash the federal workforce isn’t the first, it’s just the worst
COMMENTARY | The triple-meat-cleaver approach to workforce “reform.”
Pay & Benefits
Senate Dem reintroduces Equal COLA Act, and more
A weekly roundup of pay and benefits news.
Workforce
Some fired probationary feds are receiving unexpected emails: 'You're re-hired'
Some offices within federal agencies are backtracking on their recent firing sprees.
Workforce
Thousands join class actions as fired feds weigh options to challenge Trump's moves
Former federal probationary employees are hopeful they can prove their dismissals were not actually performance based, as their agencies claim.
Updated
Workforce